Blessing on 53rd St.
No this is not the rejected sequel to Miracle of 34th st.. Better yet, answered prayer and a reassuring step in God’s plan. Hello beloved family and friends. This blog is a very exciting report for me to share with you all. I first must apologize for my absence these past three weeks, I will explain why. As always this will be a salad bar styled blog with the first section covering what I have been up to these past three weeks and the second section about the Orphanage’s step forward. I think it would only be appropriate to end this blog with a section of thanks and prayer requests that you, the reader, can take to help this orphanage be a reality. So without further delay grab your comfort snack (chocolate, cheese, an onion) and buckle up.
Kicking it in Cartagena
Christmas and New Years went great here; despite it not really feeling like it was Christmas. During the holiday break Pastor Libni and his wife, Natalia was planning a road trip to Cartagena. The plan was Libni, Natalia, Oscar (the worship pastor, who had never seen the ocean before), Natalia’s sister, and myself. However two weeks before leaving, Natalia’s sister backed out and we were left looking frantically for a fifth person (to keep the costs down for all of us). My friend Catherine Sittser, from my college, was traveling through Latin America and had planned to come and visit for 3 days and then continue on to Ecuador (things changed, in more ways than one). I talked her into rescheduling her flight and come to Cartagena with us. So on the first of January we all crammed into Libni’s two door hatch back and embarked on the 20 hour road trip. Now when I say road trip, you probably think cruising along I-90 at a comfortably fast speed. Well forget that picture and think of watching European rally car racing instead. Weaving through the Andes on narrow roads, playing chicken on every turn and dodging pot holes left our arms limp for holding on as we swerved past another car. The highways aren’t that bad if you had like a Hummer or something. The road would have convenient pot holes in the shaded part of the road and then random speed bumps in the middle of no where. Apparently the thinking behind this is, “we don’t have money to pay traffic cops to regulate speed, so we’ll just throw random speed bumps all through out the highway”. Well after a very long trip and great maneuvering on Libni’s part we arrived in Cartagena, the Miami of Colombia, home to Shakira and her gyrating “truth telling hips”. We stayed in Libni’s cousin’s apartment and cooked our own food to save on money and enjoyed the beach. Cartagena was the jewel of the Spanish crown in its heyday, boasting a fortress/castle that was never defeated. We loved walking through it’s old town district, which was straight out of a travel brochure. Well to some it up, we spent two weeks there and it was amazing and the company I spent it with was just as great (well, maybe better).
Siempre Adelante (Always Forward)
I knew January would be a big month for the orphanage but I didn’t know what it would look like. The plan all along was I would go to Cartagena and meet up with two friends, Henry Bedford and his friend, Phil, who were motorcycling through Central America. Henry is the CEO of the Southwestern Company (the company I sold books with) and several other companies like Great American, which Phil works with. They had expressed interest in helping out with the orphanage and we had planned to meet up in Cartagena and they would ride back with us. However, due to complications of finding a boat from Panama to Colombia (there is no road in between, for those who want to road trip Central and South America), they took a plane and air shipped their bikes last minute to Bogotá (their planned destination). I was expecting them this week and instead checked my email last Friday to find out that they were frantically looking for me. We finally hooked up and I drove over to their Hotel to pick them up. We rode around a bit on the bikes and then headed back to the church. They stored their bikes in the basement (to pick up for next year’s trip). I gave them the tour of the church, the building we want to buy for the orphanage and then gave them the run down of what orphanage would be. After an hour or so of talking, Henry came out and asked how much we would need for the down payment to get the house. We crunched numbers and came up with $40 grand. He then said he would be responsible for $30 grand if we could come up with $10 grand (we have $8 grand as we speak). I had day dreamed this scenario through and yet when it actually happened I was still shocked. However, more than the money, it was so great to be with Henry and Phil because of their ability to see the greater vision of what this orphanage could be. The blessing of being 23 years old is I have so much time ahead of me; however, the curse of being young is the inability to project an idea over a ten, twenty year stretch of time. Both Henry and Phil shared some amazing ideas for the orphanage and encouraged me in my work, which meant a lot. After a great dinner where we shared ideas and heard their hilarious road trip stories we parted ways.
A Note of Thanks
For those of you giving financially and those who are praying for this project, thank you, thank you. I have talked a lot about Faith and how this project is stretching me to rely on God. However, this project is more than just my personal opportunity to grow, it is a catalyst for everyone’s faith who have invested prayer, money and time into this project. I pray that this recent blessing would stretch your faith as it has mine and that we would continue to be amazed at what God is doing.
Specific Prayer Requests:
-That our meeting with the owners of the house would go well (this Friday), and that they would give us a reasonable price.
-Financially, that we would be able to raise enough money to get a manageable loan from the bank.
-This Friday we have a meeting with a group who is working with child prostitutes in the red light district of Bogotá.
Kicking it in Cartagena
Christmas and New Years went great here; despite it not really feeling like it was Christmas. During the holiday break Pastor Libni and his wife, Natalia was planning a road trip to Cartagena. The plan was Libni, Natalia, Oscar (the worship pastor, who had never seen the ocean before), Natalia’s sister, and myself. However two weeks before leaving, Natalia’s sister backed out and we were left looking frantically for a fifth person (to keep the costs down for all of us). My friend Catherine Sittser, from my college, was traveling through Latin America and had planned to come and visit for 3 days and then continue on to Ecuador (things changed, in more ways than one). I talked her into rescheduling her flight and come to Cartagena with us. So on the first of January we all crammed into Libni’s two door hatch back and embarked on the 20 hour road trip. Now when I say road trip, you probably think cruising along I-90 at a comfortably fast speed. Well forget that picture and think of watching European rally car racing instead. Weaving through the Andes on narrow roads, playing chicken on every turn and dodging pot holes left our arms limp for holding on as we swerved past another car. The highways aren’t that bad if you had like a Hummer or something. The road would have convenient pot holes in the shaded part of the road and then random speed bumps in the middle of no where. Apparently the thinking behind this is, “we don’t have money to pay traffic cops to regulate speed, so we’ll just throw random speed bumps all through out the highway”. Well after a very long trip and great maneuvering on Libni’s part we arrived in Cartagena, the Miami of Colombia, home to Shakira and her gyrating “truth telling hips”. We stayed in Libni’s cousin’s apartment and cooked our own food to save on money and enjoyed the beach. Cartagena was the jewel of the Spanish crown in its heyday, boasting a fortress/castle that was never defeated. We loved walking through it’s old town district, which was straight out of a travel brochure. Well to some it up, we spent two weeks there and it was amazing and the company I spent it with was just as great (well, maybe better).
Siempre Adelante (Always Forward)
I knew January would be a big month for the orphanage but I didn’t know what it would look like. The plan all along was I would go to Cartagena and meet up with two friends, Henry Bedford and his friend, Phil, who were motorcycling through Central America. Henry is the CEO of the Southwestern Company (the company I sold books with) and several other companies like Great American, which Phil works with. They had expressed interest in helping out with the orphanage and we had planned to meet up in Cartagena and they would ride back with us. However, due to complications of finding a boat from Panama to Colombia (there is no road in between, for those who want to road trip Central and South America), they took a plane and air shipped their bikes last minute to Bogotá (their planned destination). I was expecting them this week and instead checked my email last Friday to find out that they were frantically looking for me. We finally hooked up and I drove over to their Hotel to pick them up. We rode around a bit on the bikes and then headed back to the church. They stored their bikes in the basement (to pick up for next year’s trip). I gave them the tour of the church, the building we want to buy for the orphanage and then gave them the run down of what orphanage would be. After an hour or so of talking, Henry came out and asked how much we would need for the down payment to get the house. We crunched numbers and came up with $40 grand. He then said he would be responsible for $30 grand if we could come up with $10 grand (we have $8 grand as we speak). I had day dreamed this scenario through and yet when it actually happened I was still shocked. However, more than the money, it was so great to be with Henry and Phil because of their ability to see the greater vision of what this orphanage could be. The blessing of being 23 years old is I have so much time ahead of me; however, the curse of being young is the inability to project an idea over a ten, twenty year stretch of time. Both Henry and Phil shared some amazing ideas for the orphanage and encouraged me in my work, which meant a lot. After a great dinner where we shared ideas and heard their hilarious road trip stories we parted ways.
A Note of Thanks
For those of you giving financially and those who are praying for this project, thank you, thank you. I have talked a lot about Faith and how this project is stretching me to rely on God. However, this project is more than just my personal opportunity to grow, it is a catalyst for everyone’s faith who have invested prayer, money and time into this project. I pray that this recent blessing would stretch your faith as it has mine and that we would continue to be amazed at what God is doing.
Specific Prayer Requests:
-That our meeting with the owners of the house would go well (this Friday), and that they would give us a reasonable price.
-Financially, that we would be able to raise enough money to get a manageable loan from the bank.
-This Friday we have a meeting with a group who is working with child prostitutes in the red light district of Bogotá.
posted by Jacob Grady | 10:08 AM
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